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By Sean Crose
Add Matchroom honcho Eddie Hearn to the large number of notables inside the fight game who are openly lauding the fact the long awaited Errol Spence-Terence Crawford undisputed welterweight title fight is finally becoming a reality. “I think it does great numbers,” Hearn said to DAZN regarding Spence-Crawford’s pay per view potential, “500,000 – 600,000.” Those are big numbers, to be sure. What’s more, Hearn might actually be low balling the actual number. Although claiming the fight has a chance to do a million buys may be pushing things, a million buys is not entirely out of the realm of possibility.
For this fight has the potential to bring in casual fans, much as this past April’s Gervonta Davis-Ryan Garcia superfight did. That bout brought in over a million buys. While it’s true both Davis and Garcia are young and have huge fan bases, both Spence and Crawford have been dominating opponents, as well as their shared welterweight division, for some time now. This fight has been a long time coming, almost too long. Fortunately for Spence and Crawford, the excitement still seems to be there after years of fans seemingly waiting in vain. “It’s a tremendous fight,” said Hearn, “and I’m sure it’ll get the respect it deserves.”
Hearn himself knows what it means to be involved with a large caliber event. He’s helped promote such big names as Anthony Joshua and Canelo Alvarez. He may currently be engaged in a war of words with rival promoter Bob Arum, but the Englishman has certainly risen to the top – or at least close to the top – of contemporary boxing’s promotional mountain. Suffice to say, Hearn is unlikely to run a major card of his own when Spence and Crawford square off on July 29th.
Indeed, there is good reason the Spence-Crawford throwdown is already generating a large amount of hype. Not only will the winner be the undisputed welterweight champion of the world, each man is considered one of the best fighters on the planet. On top of that, neither Spence nor Crawford has ever once tasted defeat. The only thing not to like about the fight, really, is that it hasn’t happened already. Yet Hearns knows as well as anyone how hard it is to put a fight of this nature together. Perhaps that’s why he’s so willing to express his admiration for a match that frankly almost never got made.
